Piece of White Light Black Shadow [Louis Kahn Lecture]

There were reasons to share Louis Kahn lecture for all of us. First, it showed the fundamental of the responsibility that architect should do, the ethic that we must always improve, and the passion for excellence which people should seize from the Architect. I discovered that the fundamentals taught Louis Kahn is the starter to be more beautiful than it was or at least that’s our duty to create the best institution of man we could offer.

White Light Black Shadow

…We were talking this afternoon

of the three aspects of teaching architecture.

Actually, I believe that I do not really teach architecture

but that i teach myself.

These, however, are the three aspects:

The first aspect is professional.

As a professional you have the obligation of

learning your conduct in all relationships…

in institutional relationships,

and in your relationship with men who

entrust you with work.

In this regard, you must know the distinction

between science and technology.

The rules of aesthetics also constitute professional knowledge.

As a professional, you are obliged to translate

the program of a client into that of the spaces of

the institution this building is to serve.

You might say it is a space order,

or a space-realm of this activity of man

which is your professional responsibility.

A man should not take the program

and simply give it to the client

as though he were filling a doctor prescription.

Another aspect is training a man to express himself.

This is his own prerogative.

He must be given the meaning of philosophy,

the meaning of belief, the meaning of faith.

He must know the other arts…

architect must learn that they have other rights…

their own rights.

To learn this, to understand this,

is giving the man the tools for making the incredible

that which nature cannot make.

The tools make a psychological validity,

not just a physical validity,

because man, unlike nature, has choice.

Louis I Kahn Conversations with Students, Architecture at Rice 26, Princeton Architectural Press. pp31-32